


As the Witch flies

by ananiah, modernKhione



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Original Character Death(s), Salem Witch Institute, Salem Witches' Institute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-21
Updated: 2013-03-26
Packaged: 2017-12-06 01:26:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/730076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ananiah/pseuds/ananiah, https://archiveofourown.org/users/modernKhione/pseuds/modernKhione
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We all know the story of Harry Potter, the British Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One who defeated Voldemort. But it didn't impact the rest of the world much, did it?</p><p>Across the ocean, in the close-yet-far off Americas, another story would unfold, with consequences for all the witches and wizards in the New World--and perhaps the Old as well.</p><p>==ABANDONED, I'm leaving it up but I don't think I'll ever come back to this, unfortunately. I'd be happy to let someone else continue with it, if they want.==</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Close Encounter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ananiah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ananiah/gifts).



> Thank you, ananiah! Without you, I couldn't have come up with the idea/story/plot, and this fic that I've wanted to write for a while would never have been written. 
> 
> I've had this idea in my head for a while now, wondering about the magical world from an international point of view. So, while there may be mentions of the characters we all know and love, it is unlikely they will appear here. I figured that this is still Harry Potter fanfiction, though, because I am writing in the same world--just not with the same setting, characters, or really even similar plot. 
> 
> Oh, and this takes place in modern-day. Something around a few years ago, in the last decade.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it! :)

Linda Callahan exited the office building with a sigh. Her ankles were throbbing from her high-heels, her head buzzed with the loud voices from the afternoon's meeting, and she felt as if she were suffocating from her tight, tight,  _tight_ blouse-and-pencil-skirt ensemble. Why she had opted for traditional office attire the one day she actually had to  _sit in an office_ , she would never know.

But it was all worth it, in the end. The endless confusion that was the Central Office of Magical Law had agreed to holding the convention next month, and that was all Linda cared for at the moment. Her years of hard work, of petitioning the government and consulting numerous law experts had led to the meeting that would take place in a month's time, and she couldn't wait.

As she walked to her car in the parking lot-- _soon, there would be no need for that_ \--she felt an odd sensation in the back of her head.

She paused, wondering what it was that made her feel as if--as if someone were clawing at her skull; skating sharp, skeletal fingers over her mind.

Linda whirled around, hand reaching for her wand as she prepared to protect herself. There had been a full-out magical war in Britain a few years ago, and too many radical groups in the United States had tried to start something themselves lately. She couldn't be too careful.

But she saw nothing. Unnerved, she held still and cast a nonverbal Sensory Charm on her ears. The Americas were inhabited by more than just immigrant witches.

Behind her, Linda heard a shrill, scratching sound. She turned and saw the hood of her car shredded to ribbons.  _What was that?_

A freezing gust of wind, a howl rushed in her ears, and pain.

Blinding, excruciating pain, as if someone were cutting her open from the spine.

Then nothing.


	2. News

"And in other magical news, the legal community is abuzz with the discovery of the corpse of Linda Callahan, a 42-year-old woman from Massachusetts. The cause of Callahan's death is unknown at this time, though an unnamed source has said that Aurors at the scene believed it to be magical. We will keep you updated.

"Callahan had recently petitioned the Office of Magical Law to hold a Convention of Legal Review on the International Statute of Secrecy, and whether it was fair that a law signed in 1689--before American witches and wizards broke off from their European counterparts--was actually considered legal in the Americas. The Convention is to take place in two weeks, barring any other murders. Only lawyers and others with actual legal expertise on the issue will be allowed in the discussion, however all those residing in the Americas are welcome to attend.

"And that's all, folks! Have a wonderful evening. Be sure to tune in tomorrow night at--"

_Click._

"Hey! I was listening to that," Sam grumbled. She didn't really care though, either way, but listening to the radio had been a good way to stave off nerves while she had waited.

"Stop listening to that drivel. It's going to drive you insane," her older sister said. She'd recently found a dictionary full of archaic words in their grandparents' attic (always an adventurous undertaking in and of itself) and had been studiously applying them to every situation that she could. Words such as "drivel." Sam knew that her older sister only wanted to sound smarter to impress the new boy from Maine, but she figured it was a lost cause. Mainers were odd.

Although, Sam thought most witches from outside of Massachusetts were odd.

"I wonder what they're gonna do at the convention, though," said Laura, her homework spread on her lap as she chewed on her pencil thoughtfully. She was one of the "modernists" who believed that using commonplace Muggle items were acceptable, as long as they were more useful than their magical counterparts.

"I don't know, and I don't care. Can'tcha do your homework properly?" Eliza, sprawled out on her stomach next to the fireplace, kept leaning over to squint at Laura's work. "Y'know, when y'said that I could copy your homework, I kinda thought you'd  _let_ me copy it?"

"Do your own work, Liza," Sam's sister, Ashley, said. She gave one of her infamous death-stares, until Eliza picked herself up and went off to her own room, grumbling. Then she brightened. "Dinner's in twenty minutes, so go and prepare yourselves, m'kay?" She left the common room as well, likely to wash up. For the boy from Maine.

Sam made a disgusted face at her sister's back. "Wonder why  _she's_ so excited about dinner. You'd think we didn't have it every day or something."

"Oh, but it's so  _romantic_ , don'tcha think?" Laura deadpanned, not even glancing up from the book in front of her. She was still chewing on her pencil. "But it's just too bad about that woman. Callahan?" She added, looking up to see Sam's blank stare.

"You mean the one on the radio?"

"Yeah."

"What about her?" Sam hadn't really been listening. She glanced at the high-ceilinged windows again, hoping that this time there would be a sign.

"Were you even listening?" Laura looked faintly exasperated. "This convention could change everything, you know. Haven't you been reading the papers?"

Silence.

"Oh, right. I forgot who I was talking to. Samantha Adams, the quodpot-player extraordinaire who can't bother to string two words together!" Sam winced, but Laura didn't notice (or maybe she ignored it). "The Convention is going to decide whether or not we have to follow the Statute of Secrecy. We could perform magic  _in front of Muggles_ if Callahan's proposal goes through!" Laura laughed a little, her eyes bright and shining, and her face was a complete depiction of glee. She shook the book in her lap at Sam, as if she could somehow transmit the happiness she felt to Sam by doing so.

"It could  _what?_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated 05/4/2013: 
> 
> So I've started a NaNo and a script, in addition to schoolwork, so this fic won't be updated 'til at least the end of April, I think. Chapter 3 is half done, but I still need to re-work a few things, and write the rest of it. (Which is hard.)
> 
> Just thought I'd make it clear that this wasn't abandoned! :)
> 
> mK


	3. The Proceedings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Convention of Legal Review held in Arizona begins.
> 
> And the Wizarding Broadcast Network of America (WBNA) reports on the results of Day 1 of the Convention.
> 
> Not all is as it seems at the Salem Witches' Institute

### Phoenix, Arizona. 9:43 AM PST

"We can't do this. No, _you_ can't do this. What makes you think that you can do this?" A short, balding man gestured wildly with his wand in front of the entrance. "I can't let you in like that! What about--"

 _"¿Qué dijó el hombre bajo?"_ The girl asked her mother.

 _"No sé,"_ she replied. The two stood outside the doors of the convention room, wondering why on earth the short man was shouting so much. They hadn't done anything wrong.

In the background, the short man kept shouting, his wisps of white hair floating around his bald pate like clouds. He bounced with every gesture and every accented word he said, the English unintelligible to the two women.

 _"Por favor, tenemos que ver mi esposo,"_ said the older woman, _"Su padre,"_ she added as she pointed to her daughter, in the hopes that he would understand.

Lucìa, the girl, scrutinized the man carefully. He seemed to be guarding the door, but she couldn't figure out how to tell him that they meant no harm. After all, they only wanted to see her father to bring him his lunch--which he had forgotten that morning--and some of his notes, which had fallen out of his briefcase as he'd hurriedly snapped it shut.

 _"Este convencion es muy importante,"_ her mother had said to her before they took the portkey, _"Ma's que todos las otras."_ A convention to change everything.

So Lucìa had run off down the hallway of the hotel after her father, dodging all sorts of scary creatures like she'd learned about in the books her father had bought her, trying to get him his notes. But the door had slammed shut, and there were people waving their fingers at her, so Lucìa had gone and told her mother what had happened.

And now they were here.

 _"Lo siento, pero no hablo inglés,"_ Lucìa finally said to the man, hoping he understood. She had thought that most Americans knew Spanish.

"Hey, Cooper! What're you doing there?" A smiling man walked into view, patting the balding man on the back. Cooper. He looked at the two of them, saw the mother's expression and the notes in Lucìa's hands, then nodded to himself. "Ah."

The white-haired man--Cooper--pointed his wand in their direction. "Stephen." He nodded his head. Then his expression became story again. "These people insist on disrupting the convention! I'm not about to allow that--"

"Why not?" The other man's tone of voice was friendly, and he winked at Lucìa. She felt the tension in her shoulders ease a bit; maybe this man would realize that they really needed to get through those doors. It's not as if her and her mother were about to, to blow something up. Or something.

 _"¿Hablas español?_ Lucìa asked hopefully.

The man smiled, then shook his head. _"No. Lo siento."_

But that didn't make sense; he was so obviously lying, Lucìa wanted to stomp her feet in frustration. _"¡PERO PUEDES! ¡ESTÁS MINTIENDO!"_

### Phoenix, Arizona. 1:37 PM. PST

"But we can't just do this! From the First Convention of Legal Review in 1894 in _Brasil_ , all the laws referenced there were from before we decided to, decided to keep the Europeans away from us. If we ignore the rules set in the first convention, where will we stop? What laws will we follow? We will live in ANARCHY!"

The man shouted the last part over the roar from the people in the room. An all-out war of words brewed in the room; it threatened to spill over from hurled insults to fists.

"ENOUGH! THAT IS ENOUGH." Smith Johnson's voice boomed throughout the room, shaking the walls. Those who had cast Sensory Charms over their ears cowered beneath their seats under the man's enhanced voice. Courtesy of a convenient Sonorous Charm, of course.

"WE WILL BREAK FOR TODAY. Y'ALL BETTER BE READY TO TALK RESPECTFULLY BY TOMORROW." Johnson's face started going red. Breathing in deeply, he plowed on (another opportunity to regain some order wasn't likely to present itself again).

"THIS MEETING IS **ADJOURNED**."

### Danvers, Massachusetts. 5:00 PM EST

"And the first day of the Convention of Legal Magical Review ended early after a group of respectable lawyers resorted to fists to get their point across. The witches and wizards were divided sharply among two groups: pro-Statute and anti-Statute. They seem to have hit an impasse on the very first day--how they will resolve the issues at hand and reach a decision is anyone's guess. 

"At any rate, it was agreed all around that today's meeting was a complete failure. It remains to be seen what the coming days will bring.

"Aaaaand that's all--"

 _Click_.

"Why don't you ever let me listen to the very end of the broadcast?" Sam asked, annoyed. 

Ashley raised a brow. A stab of jealousy running through Sam. "And when have you ever been interested in law or politics, hmm?" asked Ashley.

At least she'd stopped with the insane talk. "I'm not. But Laura is," she replied, looking over at the big armchair her friend had occupied earlier.

"And Laura is...where? Dinner's in less than twenty minutes, Sam," Ashley chastised. "You really need to get going."

"All the bathrooms are taken--unless you want me to break into the boys' dorms?" Sam waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Ashley threw a pillow at Sam as she tried not too laugh too hard. As if breaking into the boys' dorms was that scandalous. Or difficult.

After all, only the girls' dorms' door handles burned those of the opposite sex; no one had apparently ever thought that girls would care to visit the boys' dorm for a midnight tryst, or something.

* * *

As Ashley walked down the hallway and out the back door of the girls' dorms (which were on the opposite side of the school compound from the boys' dorms), she smoothed one hand down her skirt and ran another hand through her hair. She tried to keep her legs from shivering-- _Why couldn't I remember how to use the Toasty-warm Charm?--_ and approached the forest that ran around the Institute's campus. The trees were shedding the last of their multi-colored leaves, but the first frost hadn't occurred yet.  _Perfect night for Divining_ , she thought to herself.

"Matt? Are you there?" 

 _Matthew from Maine_ , Samantha had teased her endlessly. But she couldn't help it; he had warm brown hair that lit up like gold in the sunlight and beautiful grey eyes, stark and strong and silent like the ocean on a normal New England day. He was warm and cold, just like his personality. But that hadn't deterred Ashley.

"Hey beautiful," someone breathed into her ear a moment later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From now on, I think the fic will proceed like this:  
> A news broadcast/article/in-world piece of information, followed by the happenings at Salem Witch Institute, then Linda's story. They are all inter-connected, I promise! It will take a little while to connect them, though.
> 
> I'm still working out how AO3 works as well, so please forgive any typos/formatting issues/misc. mistakes that may occur.
> 
> Also, I apologize for the delay but the next few chapters will take longer as a) life is hectic and b) research is necessary.
> 
> Thank you so much, ananiah, for helping me with the Spanish in this chapter! I would've been so lost without your help :)
> 
> And thank _you_ for reading! :)


End file.
